THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG SCHNEIDER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
State Republican Party Chairman Patrick McSweeney, who faced charges of racial insensitivity during last fall's U.S. Senate race, will speak Sunday at the dedication of a Confederate flag monument in Danville.
``Don't fall into the usual trap of calling this a racist approach,'' McSweeney warned Thursday.
While the Confederate flag has been a sensitive subject for many African-Americans, McSweeney said he will not worry about the way people interpret his participation in Sunday's event.
``It happens to be something I feel very strongly about,'' McSweeney said, adding that ``if I worried about the message, the impressions, I wouldn't do anything. It's the right thing to do. I've been involved in this for decades.''
McSweeney said that he is not a member of the Confederate advocacy group sponsoring the monument, and that his interest simply lies in ``Virginia history issues and issues related to it.''
McSweeney, a Richmond lawyer, was criticized last October for saying that ``it doesn't make sense from a cost-effectiveness standpoint'' for the GOP to target black voters. He said Democrats had spent too many years paying people to get out the vote in black neighborhoods, and had poisoned the GOP's reputation by casting Republicans as racists.
That remark was misinterpreted, he said Thursday. ``Nobody's done more than I have in this party to try to make it as broadly based as possible without changing our principles.''
Sunday's event will be held on the grounds of the Sutherlin Mansion in Danville, which served as the last Capitol of the Confederacy after Richmond fell in 1865. Attention turned to Danville two years ago when debate erupted over flying the Confederate national flag - not the more recognizable battle flag - at the Sutherlin museum.
The Heritage Preservation Association, a national Confederate advocacy group, fought to keep the flag flying. Wayne Byrd, president of the Danville chapter, said Thursday that his group resolved the issue by collecting $7,000 to erect a granite obelisk topped by a flagpole and flag.
``Now it will fly 365 days, 24 hours a day, and the city nor the museum will never take it down,'' Byrd said.
He said his group invited McSweeney to speak at Sunday's unveiling, having met him during the political campaigns of Gov. George F. Allen and failed U.S. Senate candidate Oliver L. North.
The event will feature several speakers, including two scholars who will discuss the contributions of black Confederates.
Although McSweeney is listed on the event program as chairman of the state GOP, he said he is not speaking in his official capacity. ``I have a private life. This is something I consider very important.'' by CNB